“The Golden Ball” by Agatha Christie

Saturday ShortsWeek 1Welcome to our new weekend series for 2014. Every Saturday this year one of our staff will suggest a favorite short story from the library’s collection, all of them great choices for quick weekend reading.

Well, this is a fun one to kick-off a new blog series. It’s definitely Christie’s breezier, more humorous side. Sure, “The Golden Ball” has got a little mystery at its heart, and even a little gun-play, but it’s more Jeeves and Wooster than Poirot or Marple in style.

We follow young George Dundas, who gets fired for playing hooky on a beautiful London day yet manages in a mere afternoon to turn his unemployment into a cool £20,000 a year. That was no small sum when the story was published in 1929. His path to wealth involves a rambunctious socialite named Mary Montresor, a thrilling car ride, a brief kidnapping, a cleverly used banana peel, and a little impromptu martial arts.

If you’d like to see the humor that’s always woven into Christie’s mysteries come to the forefront, “The Golden Ball” is a great place to start. Check the mystery section for it next time you’re in.